Before the internet era , the standard media ( news channels , newspapers ) was the only tool available to whistleblowers to expose the wrong doings of goverments and multi - national corporations around the world. In the west in particular , the freedom of information allowed the media to publish high value contents about some western governments wrong doings around the world ( e.g. U.S war crimes in Vietnam and Laos ). However in nowdays , the standard western media ( U.S media in particular ) has become almost a partner with the U.S goverment in hiding the true about the U.S wrong doings around the world , from the past war crimes committed in Iraq to the ongoing war crimes in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Thankfully in nowdays , the internet has given us the chance to post and access classified information about the wrong doings of some western governments , a good example is the recent wikileaks releace of classified U.S military documents containing plenty of information about war crimes committed by U.S and British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. These classified documents would never go public through the standard media if wikileaks was 100% dependent on standard media ! Thanks to the internet , the world has become a closer community in terms of information , information posted from any corner of the world can reach millions of people around the world within minutes. So the internet has become a very powerfull tool of holding goverments and multi - national corporations accountable for their wrong doings.